Monthly Archives: July 2010

I took the bus downtown (only $1.75 one-way) from the campus and headed to downtown Cincinnati. The journey only took a few minutes – the route was walkable in terms of distance but it was downhill all the way (so if you were walking back it wouldn’t be fun) but more importantly it didn’t look like a great neighbourhood to be walking through in the first place. A lot of derelict buildings, and some odd looking people. On my way in something caught my attention as being odd (to my eyes) but I couldn’t work out what it was. It was only on the way back that I realised I hadn’t seen a single white person in that area. So definitely not an area to walk through I think.

I wandered around downtown a bit. There does not seem to be a vast amount in the city centre itself. Most of the museums are outside the downtown area. But it was worth it as I now know where things like the main bus terminus is. And I think it should be fairly straightforward to use public transport to get around.

I also located the main shopping centre – so I’ll probably go there one weekend and have a nosy around. I also stopped off at Fountain Square which has a rather large and impressive over-the-top fountain (hence the name).

It is rather ornate isn’t it?

After this I decided to head over the river to Newport to see if I could get a paddle-steamer ride along the Ohio River. To get there was a little bit of a walk but required the crossing of the river. This was achieved using the ‘Purple People Bridge’ – it has a proper name but apparently ‘Purple People Bridge’ is what most people call it these days and how it is signposted.

Newport is in Kentucky and seemed rather nice. A lot of work has gone to the waterfront area (now known as Newport-on-the-Levee) and there is a good range of shops and bars/restaurants. I also spotted the Aquarium and I’m planning on going there another day.

I had seen the paddle-steamer port from the Cincinnati side of the river, and the boat was in dock. I made it just in time and got on a few minutes before that tour left. They only seem to run every other hour. The tour took a hour and was really nice. We went up and down the river, past Covington and Newport on the Kentucky side and Cincinnati on the Ohio side. The boat was called the River Queen and it was built in the 1930s. I’ve captioned all the pictures so it should be fairly straightforward to look through them.

There was about 200 people on board (most in the indoor buffet area) and about 50-75 on deck so it wasn’t too crowded. There seemed to be an Amish family outing taking place on deck (obviously not too traditional as a lot of them had sunglasses on and digital cameras). It was quite interesting to see them – especially the women’s outfits with the quite formal dresses and bonnets. There also seemed to be an awful lot of kids with them – it seemed as though there were about 3 per adult and there were at least 15 adults!

After the cruise I had some lunch at the mock-Irish pub at the Levee, had a lovely smoked salmon salad and a pint. Then I walked back over another bridge – spotting the River Queen departing on her next tour.

As I was walking back across the river I became aware that there were a lot of people walking to Cincinnati – all in baseball jerseys – I overheard that there was a game starting at 4pm.

Then I caught the bus back to campus, I’m possibly going out for a drink tonight with Claire as she had left a note under my door while I was out.

I got stuck in with the articles I needed to finish off the material I wanted to check for the inscription database. I had hoped to get this finished today but there was more than I expected and most of it was in Greek and German (the only bit that wasn’t was in French) so I’m hoping to finish it off on Monday.

Another of the Summer Fellows (Clare) arrived today, she seems quite friendly. We went out for lunch together which was nice. I’d ordered what I’d hoped was a healthy lunch – turned out to be coated in mayonnaise and the iced green tea was full of sugar (bye bye 15 points). It was quite tasty though. When I was ordering they asked if I wanted chips (crisps I think), baguette or an apple on the side. I clarified this with the server and opted for the apple. Clare misheard her server, and thought they were asking what bread she wanted for her sandwich. She was presented with a full sandwich with half a plain baguette on the side of the plate. Very odd.

After lunch, it was back to library and some more work. I finished up at about 3pm and went swimming for half an hour. Managed 800m in about 31-32 minutes.

I’m going to explore the city tomorrow – so I’m looking forward to that.

I’ve added a couple of extra albums – one of gym (including the suspended indoor running track) and one for the area around the campus. There are also a few more pictures to the campus and americana albums too.

My first shopping experience today was the on-campus book store. I thought I would have a look at the books available.. Hmm. Maybe not. The textbooks relating to courses taught are in a section cordoned off so you can’t browse them. And the general book section was quite small. The majority of the store (both floors), a not-insubstantial space, was taken up with clothing and general University-branded stuff.

This was the wall which attracted my attention the most, most of it seemed to be for people to use at sporting events. This included pom-poms, giant foam hands, rally beads (what are they for exactly?)…

Also why not support your team with branded mints?

And whose life is not complete without University oven mitts?

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After I’d finished in the library today, I decided to try the bookstore across the street from the campus. Only to find that once again the books were all textbooks and cordoned off and the majority of the shop again devoted to University-branded stuff.

On the plus side, as I was exiting this store I spotted a health-food shop and managed to acquire some cous-cous, bulgar wheat and polenta.

Again the healthier food was expensive… $3 for rice cakes? But the stuff I was picking up wasn’t too bad.

I decided to grab some beer for tonight from a smaller shop on my home, never very comforting when one of the signs in the window states that the place is an official police sub-station. And the two guys behind the counter were very big and very tattooed. They were very nice, one of the them was running out into the car park as the previous customer had left some stuff on the counter. Didn’t quite fit the image. Plus it is always odd when big, tough looking guys tell you to have a nice day.

I got to the library at about 9.30 and got straight back into working my way through the list of books I had prepared for the inscription database. It is going really well and I’m hoping to get that list finished off tomorrow.

I wandered off out for lunch a bit after 12. Wandered through the University bookstore (more on that later), picked up a Starbucks and then ate my packed lunch watching the American football thing that was going on in the main stadium.

After that it was back to the library – little bit more inscription research. Then I worked my way through a Greek volume on Hellenic Mysteries which was a bit odd (kept bringing in Pythagoran and Neo-Pythagoran theories). By the time I’d got that finished I was ready to call it a day.

I decided to eat on campus today, figuring that since there were plenty of eateries mentioned on the University website that I would be able to find something.

Well, easier said than done. Everything was junk food (Pizza Hut, KFC-type Chicken Place, Subway, Burger King). Then I saw a Sushi bar, ‘Aha!’ thought I, ‘that’ll have something decent.’ Well, no. Not unless you want a 16 piece pack of Sushi (that was a one-portion pack). Plus the mixed boxes had squid or eel as one of the components. The plain packs (just one fish type) had some interesting additions. The spicy tuna was heavily drizzled in spicy mayonnaise (I think) or you could have salmon but only with cream cheese. 16 pieces would have been far too many anyway.

I ended up at the grocery store on campus, where the pre-packaged sandwiches looked plastic (imitation cheese anyone?).

So lunch ended up being a small pack of beef jerky and a cereal bar. Yum.